New College of Florida in Sarasota was once a small, progressive liberal arts school.
But in 2023, it began a shift toward a more conservative model, with new trustees and a new president. The state university rebranded, added athletics and dropped certain courses — like gender studies.
The changes are part of a 10-year campus plan laid out by college president Richard Corcoran, a hand-picked ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis, to increase enrollment and expand the school's physical footprint.
The college tried to acquire The Ringling museum and University of South Florida's Sarasota-Manatee campus in early 2025. Efforts were unsuccessful after public pushback.
However, according to DeSantis' recently proposed budget for 2026-27, the adjacent USF campus is back on the agenda.
Alice Herman, an investigative reporter at Suncoast Searchlight, joined "Florida Matters Live & Local" on Monday to talk about the possible changes.
Herman told guest host Cathy Carter what they could mean for USF.
Why is New College trying to expand the school? What will the land they're trying to get be used for?
The proposal to transfer (the) University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus to New College was just unveiled a week ago in Gov. Ron DeSantis' budget proposal. President Corcoran of New College has signaled his support for the transfer as well.
Essentially, the idea would be for New College to expand its athletic facilities, (and) take over some of the dorm space [of] students who had been displaced from dorms due to problems with mold. They'd be able to have more space, so that would essentially be what New College would stand to gain from that transfer.
The school would also, though, take on millions of dollars of debt, because the transfer of facilities from USF would also mean the transfer of facility debt. Reporting by [WUSF's] fantastic reporter, Kerry Sheridan, shows that more than $50 million in debt would be transferred.
You talked about the lack of dorm space at New College. We know students are at hotels and in rooms at USF Sarasota-Manatee right now, and a lot of the land they're trying to acquire, as you mentioned, is going to athletics. They're really kind of beefing up, trying to get more student-athletes in.
Walk us through the New College master plan and what has happened so far, and what they are trying to do next?
The master plan is essentially a 10-year plan for how the college plans to use its facilities and geographic footprint. The plan itself looks at its current geographic footprint.
The Board of Trustees voted to pass the master plan at about the same time that DeSantis proposed handing over the USF campus. So, among other things, the master plan proposes transferring a couple of residential properties to New College. And it also proposes different buildings on campus.
There were some concerns from the public that we heard during th Board of Trustees meeting over the use of and conversion of native habitat to facilitate different kinds of building projects, and there was also some talk about the creation of a sidewalk that would connect The Ringling museum to New College — which wouldn't in itself transfer The Ringling to New College, but I think for some it signaled this continual interest in connecting those campuses and connecting those spaces.
And as we know, last year, Gov. DeSantis also attempted to transfer The Ringling museum to New College, and that didn't work out during the last legislative session. Lawmakers ultimately didn't follow up with that proposal. But of course, it could always be introduced in the next legislative session.
USF Sarasota-Manatee, how did they become part of this plan? Wasn't there a lot of pushback from the community last year, when this first came up?
There was a lot of pushback from faculty and staff and other stakeholders. USF, though, did have some behind-the-scenes talks with New College about transferring the campus. It's ultimately similar to the proposal to take over The Ringling, (which) didn't pass.
But DeSantis is again trying to make this happen, and again, it seems that what USF would stand to gain would simply be getting rid of some of its debts and having those taken on by New College, which comes at a kind of interesting time, because New College is increasingly relying on state appropriations to fund its operations.
Florida's Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] recently released a report that New College — and Corcoran critics — sort of seized onto as evidence of its spending. The way New College is spending dwarfs the spending of other institutions in the State University System. So there's sure to be more pushback [next] year, although it's unclear to me at this point what the position of USF is in this whole project and proposal.
I think that one of the members of the [USF] Board of Trustees says it's up to the Legislature, but this actually isn't being introduced by the Legislature this time around. It's actually in the governor's budget. For those who aren't that familiar with that area of Sarasota, can you explain? Where is USF Sarasota-Manatee in proximity to New College of Florida?
New College of Florida is just south of USF Sarasota-Manatee, and both lie right along Sarasota Bay. It's a really beautiful campus. Both ... lie right alongside this really beautiful bayfront property, and then The Ringling is just out south of New College. So you have these three cultural/academic institutions occupying a really gorgeous and probably highly valued space alongside Sarasota Bay.
If USF loses that campus in Sarasota-Manatee, what do you think that will mean for the faculty and staff? Is there any plan for that so far, or what will happen to all of the students and the faculty?
In the budget proposal, if this were to pass, students who are currently enrolled at USF would not be displaced, and they would have four years to graduate, it says, or within a reasonable time to graduate.
However, at the time that this is passed, if it does pass, any new students, from my reading of [the proposal], it's not clear to me that any newly enrolled students at USF in the fall of 2026 would be able to stay there. I don't know what the status would be. For example, a senior in high school right now who's applying to college and is contemplating going to USF Sarasota-Manatee, that seems like it's more up in the air.
I'm also not sure what would happen to the faculty and staff who are there. This is a facilities transfer, but obviously, once the facilities are controlled by New College, what happens inside them presumably would also be at the discretion of New College of Florida.
